Ryman Healthcare residents and team members have picked Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand charity to support for the coming year.
All fundraising efforts by residents and team members for the next 12 months will be matched by Ryman Healthcare dollar-for-dollar.
Ryman CEO NZ Cheyne Chalmers said the annual charity partnership program holds a special place in the heart of “who we are” as an organisation.
“It exemplifies our commitment to making a difference, not just in the lives of our residents but in the lives of those in need…,” Cheyne said.
In the previous year Ryman Healthcare donated a ‘phenomenal’ $474,511 to the Fred Hollows Foundation eye health cause.
“We’re at Anthony Wilding village this afternoon to present the combined donation to the Fred Hollows Foundation, and also to announce our next charity partner. And so all of the work that has gone in over the last year over all our villages in New Zealand, with our residents and our team members, today is the culmination of that,” Cheyne said this week.
At the village event Fred Hollows Foundation NZ Chair Craig Fisher spoke about the good eye health work that will be enabled by the donation, and similar donations in Australia.
“Thank you to all of the staff and especially the residents of Ryman Healthcare and all of the villages around the country…,” Craig said.
“How we split up the world, is that the Australian foundation looks after Africa and Asia and New Zealand looks after the Pacific. So for the past 20 years we’ve been actively operating in the Pacific. We have now done over 1,100,000 eye health consultations, 88,000 surgeries but the thing that makes me the proudest is that most of those have been done by people who have been from the Pacific, trained in the Pacific for the Pacific…
“So we have trained now over 350 eye health experts, both doctors and nurses.”
Just as delighted was Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand Business Manager Annabel Lush who said the year ahead would be an exciting one. “I’m here with my colleague Anna. We are just two of the staff, throughout the country, who were overjoyed when we heard the news we are the successful recipient charity for the next 12 months…
“We also have the chance to work with you to raise awareness about blood cancer in New Zealand, raise awareness about the symptoms which are quite difficult to diagnose until it becomes a very serious disease to have.”
Cheyne said Ryman was really looking forward to working with the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ team. The fundraising efforts of Ryman’s residents, as well as the dollar-for-dollar matching by Ryman Healthcare.
“The work never stops in the villages, they’re always fundraising for our charity partners – and with a bit of healthy competition they work hard, and fast, to meet their targets,” Cheyne said.
Ryman has donated $5.5 million to charities through its annual partnership programme since 1999. Residents contribute through seen bake sales, raffles, quiz nights, and special dress up days. For each dollar raised by residents and staff Ryman Healthcare chips in another dollar.
Other recent charity partners include Prostate Cancer Foundation, Melanoma New Zealand, Alzheimers NZ and the Breast Cancer Foundation.
About Ryman:
Ryman Healthcare was founded in Christchurch in 1984 and owns and operates 45 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia. Ryman villages are home to 13,900 residents, and the company employs 6,800 staff.